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CLARKE'S DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



RENDITION OF BURNS. 



Second Edition of Two Thousand. 



-aiim 



The Rendition of Jlnthony Burns. Its Causes and Consequences. 



COURSn 



CHRISTIAN POLITICS, 



DELIVERED IN 



WILLIAMS HALL, BOSTON, 
ON WHITSUNDAY, JUNE 4, 1854. 



BY JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, 

Minister of the Church of the Disciples. 







[PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. — SECOND EDITION OF TWO THOUSAND. 1 



BOSTON: 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, & CO., AND PRENTISS & SAWYER. 
1854. 



Ik 



boston: 

PRINTED BT PRENTISS AND 8AWTER, 

19 Water Street. 



> 



INTRODUCTORY SERVICES 



I. READING OF PSALMS. 

Psalm 61 and 62. 

Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. 

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is over- 
whelmed : lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 

Tor thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. 

I will abide in thy tabernacle forever : I will trust in the covert of thy 
wings. 

Truly my soul waiteth upon God : from him cometh my salvation. 

He only is my rock and my salvation ; he is my defence ; I shall not be 
greatly moved. 

My soul, wait thou only upon God ; for my expectation is from him. 

He only is my rock and my salvation : he is my defence ; I shall not be 
moved. 

In God is my salvation and my glory : the rock of my strength, and my 
refuge, is in God. 

Trust in him at all times ; ye people, pour out your heart before him : 
God is a refuge for us. 

Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery : if riches in- 
crease, set not your heart upon them. 

God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this ; that power belongeth 
unto God. 

Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy ; for thou renderest to every 
man according to his work. 

II. HYMN. 

Lord, we adore thy vast designs, 
The obscure abyss of providence ! 
Too deep to sound with mortal lines, 
Too dark to view with feeble sense. 



THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

Through seas and storms of deep distress 
We sail by faith, and not by sight ; 
Faith guides us in the wilderness, 
Through all the terrors of the night. 

Dear Father, if thy lifted rod 
Resolve to scourge us here below ; 
Still let us lean upon our God ; 
Thine arm shall bear us safely through. 



III. SELECTION FROM THE PROPHETS. 

READ BY THE MINISTER, AND CONGREGATION. 

The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. 

The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the 
chief men thereof : for ye have eaten up the vineyard ; the spoil of the poor 
is in your houses. 

What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of 
the poor : saith the Lord God of hosts. 

Wo unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there 
be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth ! 

Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow 
strong drink ; that continue until night, till wine inflame them ! 

And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their 
feasts : but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the 
operation of his hands. 

Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without 
measure : and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that 
rcjoiceth, shall descend into it. 

And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall bo 
humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled : 

But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy 
shall be sanctified in righteousness. 

Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords and sin as it were with a 
cart-rope : 

Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil : that put darkness for 
light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! 

Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own 
sight ! Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteous- 
ness of the righteous from him ! 

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the 
chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as 
dust ; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and 
despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 5 

O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to 
them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments ; 

We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, 
and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judg- 
ments ; 

Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, which spake in thy name 
to us. 

O Lord, righteousness bclongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face 
as at this day ! 

O Lord, to us bclongeth confusion of face, because we have sinned against 
thee. 

Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servants, and their 
supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary for the Lord's 
sake. 

O my God, incline thine ear, and hear ; open thine eyes, and behold : for 
we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but 
for thy great mercies. 

O Lord, hear ; Lord, forgive ; Lord, hearken and do ; defer not, for 
thine own sake, our God. 



IV. PRAYER. 
V. READING OF SCRIPTURES. 

SELECTION FROM THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people ! how is she be- 
come as a widow ! she that was great among the nations, and princess among 
the provinces, how is she become tributary ! 

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks ; among all 
her lovers she hath none to comfort her : all her friends have dealt treacher- 
ously with her, they are become her enemies. 

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts : all 
her gates are desolate : her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is 
in bitterness. 

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath 
•afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions : her children are gone 
into captivity before the enemy. 

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things : for 
she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst 
command that they should not enter into thy congregation. 

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? behold, and see if there be any 
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord 
hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 



6 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me J 
he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men. 

The Lord is righteous ; for I have rebelled against his commandment ; 
hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow ; my virgins and my 
young men are gone into captivity. 

All that pass by, clap their hands at thee ; they hiss and wag their head 
at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the Per- 
fection of beauty, the Joy of the whole earth ? 

All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and 
gnash the teeth : they say, We have swallowed her up : certainly this is 
the day that we looked for ; we have found, we have seen it. 

Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the 
people. 

All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 

How is the gold become dim ! how is the most fine gold changed ! the 
stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. 

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they 
were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire : 

Their visage is blacker than a coal ; they are not known in the streets : 
then - skin cleaveth to then bones ; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not 
have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the 
gates of Jerusalem. 

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have 
shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. 

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets : our end is near,, 
our days are fulfilled ; for our end is come. 

Our necks are under persecution : we labor, and have no rest. 

Servants have ruled over us : there is none that doth deliver us out of 
their hand. 

Thou O Lord remainest forever ; thy throne is from generation to genera- 
tion. 

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned ; renew our 
days as of old. 

VI. HYMN. 

BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 

Men ! wdiose boast it is, that ye 
Come of fathers brave and free, 
Lf there breathe on earth a slave, 
Are ye truly free and brave > 
If ye do not feel the chain 
"When it works a brother's pain, 
Are ye not base slaves indeed — 
Slaves unworthy to be freed ? 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 

Is true freedom but to break 
Fetters for our own dear sake, 
And with leathern hearts forget 
That we owe mankind a debt ? 
No ! true freedom is to share 
All the cbains our brothers wear, 
And ■with heart and hand to be 
Earnest to make others free ! 

They are slaves, who fear to speak 

For the fallen and the weak ; 

They are slaves, who will not choose 

Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, 

Rather than, in silence, shrink 

From the truth they needs must think ; 

They are slaves, who dare not be 

In the right with two or three. 



VII. SERMON.* 

Lamentations, Chapter II. 15, 9. 

Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, the joy of the 
whole earth ? 

Her gates are sunk into the ground ; he hath destroyed and broken her 
bars ; her king and her princes are among the Gentiles ; the law is no more ; 
her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. 

I have invited you here this morning to meditate on the 
events of the week ; the phenomenon which has occurred in 
the streets of Boston. The Slave Power, which has tri- 
umphed in Congress over the Rights of the North, which 
has violated sacred compacts, and broken contracts after hav- 
ing taken its own share of the consideration, has come North 
to Boston, has taken possession of our Court House, of our 
City Government, our whole Police force, our whole Military 
force, and suspended and interrupted the business of our 
citizens until its demands could be satisfied. Not contented, 

* A portion of this Sermon was delivered extempore ; consequently the 
printed copy will vary from it in some particulars, but it is believed in no 
essential ones. 



s 



THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 



as before, with carrying its victim away under the cloud of 
night, it this time must have a more open triumph, and turns 
our citizens out of their own streets, their banks, post-office,, 
places of business, compels them to shut up their stores, 
turns them back at the point of the bayonet if they attempt 
to pass to their affairs, for a whole day suspends all business ; 
in order that it may publicly defy Northern sentiment in its 
most sacred home. 

This event has taken us all by surprise. Great as is the 
audacity, or let me call it courage, of the South, we did not 
suppose there was a Southerner bold enough to come to 
Boston at this time, in the midst of the universal indignation 
against the Nebraska villany, to look for a Slave — or, that 
if he came, he could by possibility succeed. The clay before 
the arrest of Burns, I was riding in the cars with one of the 
conservative gentlemen of Boston, who had sustained the 
Compromises in 1850, and I said to him — "Do you think 
they could carry back a Slave from Boston now ? " « Not 
they," said he, " My acquaintances are all opposed to the 
Abolitionists, but I don't know one who would consent to 
it." So when I heard in "Western New York that a black 
man had been arrested in Boston as a fugitive, instantly I said, 
" I am glad of it ! " I said it in my simplicity. When I 
arrived in Boston on Tuesday, and saw the soldiery, and the 
city in the hands of the Slave Power, I felt a weight of 
sorrow which death cannot cause. I had just returned from 
visiting the new-made grave of my father. I had just come 
from among his children bereaved by his death of the best of 
parents, of one who loved them with a wonderful affection, 
one whose smile was a perpetual blessing, whose face was 
like that of an angel. But the sorrow for Iris loss was not 
bitter, it was tempered with joy. They shed tears, but no 
bitter tears. They wore no mourning for him, for they could 
not mourn for one whose life was good, whose days were 
many and happy, and whose death was the beginning of a 
higher life. But now I feel like putting on mourning. Now 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. \) 

I would say, " Hung be the Heavens in black," — now I 
feel a heaviness in the air as though it were full of sin. 
On Friday afternoon as I rode through the beautiful environs 
of Boston, most beautiful now, I felt as though our prosperity 
and happiness were poisoned by this baseness — as though 
our own good fortune had made us selfish, and mean, and 
cowardly. It is not bereavement which is the greatest evil. 
How true are those words — "the sting of death is sin." 
My wife said to me, " I cannot wear mourning for father ; 
for it seems to me that a Christian ought only to wear mourn- 
ing for his friends when they have committed some great 
sin." Now would be the time for this community to put on 
mourning — to wear black crape on the arm ; because Honor 
is dead, because Humanity is dead, because Massachusetts 
has been placed, and by her own acts, beneath the feet of 
Virginia. 

But I wish to be calm to-day. I have no wish to speak a 
harsh word, or to_ be unjust to any one, or to increase at all 
any passionate excitement. I wish to produce excitement — 
but not that of the passions. I wish to excite your conscience, 
your heart, and your understanding — such excitement I 
believe we need ; a deep, calm, strong excitement, which can 
wait, when to wait is necessary ; which can work, when to 
work is timely ; which will jn-epare us to do our duties here- 
after as Christians and as men. 

First, then, let us consider the Facts, and look at our 
relation to Slavery and the Slave Power. The relation of 
Freedom to Slavery in this country was, first, that of Superi- 
ority ; second, of Equality ; third, of Inferiority ; and is now 
that of Subjection. At the time the Constitution was formed, 
though Slavery existed in the Northern States, the Spirit of 
Freedom was its master both at the South and the North. 
Southern Statesmen, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Madison, 
denounced Slavery then as a great evil and wrong, agreed 
to exclude it from the North West Territory, refused to 
re-admit it there again, and expected and desired its speedy 



10 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

abolition. That was the condition of tilings at first — Slavery 
under the feet of Freedom, Southern Statesmen proposing 
and adopting what we now call the Wilmot Proviso. 

A few years pass, and we find a change already taking 
place. The cultivation of cotton has made slave labor more 
valuable. The territory of Louisiana is bought of France 
under Mr. Jefferson's administration. Missouri is admitted 
in 1821 as a Slave State, after a severe conflict, but on the 
express condition that all other territory lying as far North 
as Missouri shall forever be consecrated to Freedom. Slavery 
and Freedom now are on a footing of Equality ; they are to 
have an equal share of everything. Right and Principle have 
now yielded to Expediency, and the seed is sown to bear 
bitter fruit afterward. 

In the years succeeding the Missouri Compromise, Slavery 
is constantly gaining ground. Florida is obtained and given 
up to Slavery without a struggle. The Slave Power drives 
the Indians out of Georgia, brings on the Florida War, and 
at last, grown bolder, proposes the annexation of Texas as a 
Slave State, and, after a struggle, conquers. The main fea- 
ture of this transaction was, that it was done avowedly to pre- 
vent the abolition of Slavery and to strengthen the Slave 
Power. Not only was this purpose proclaimed in Congress 
by Mr. Henry A. Wise and others, but also by Mr. Calhoun, 
Secretary of State, in diplomatic correspondence with Mr. 
Packenham, the British Minister — thus, for the first time, 
causing the Nation to stand in the attitude of a Slavery Pro- 
tector before the world. Slavery is now uppermost, and 
Freedom beneath. 

But since the Democratic party at the North assisted South- 
ern Democrats and Southern Whigs to annex Texas, events 
have proceeded with a wonderful rapidity. The Slave Power 
hurled us into a Avar with Mexico, in order to obtain more 
territory for Slave-holding purposes. It failed in this as 
regards California, owing to the discovery of gold, which 
caused it to be filled immediately with poor emigrants from 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 11 

free countries, who did not choose to work by the side of 
Slaves. But in 1850 it succeeded in overcoming by threats of 
disunion our avowed Northern purpose, prevented the "YVilmot 
Proviso from being applied to the territories, and finally 
passed by Northern votes, among them that of Samuel A. 
Eliot of this city, this Fugitive Slave Law, under which 
Burns was on Friday carried through our streets. This Law, 
as you know, tramples on all the legal and constitutional 
guarantees of Freedom. The Constitution says (in the 5th 
Article of Amendments,) that " No person shall be deprived 
of his liberty without due process of Law," and also that "In 
suits at common Law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by Jury shall be pre- 
served." Burns was in possession of his liberty, ten days ago 
— he was a self-supporting, tax-paying citizen of Massachu- 
setts. He had a right to vote at the polls after a year's resi- 
dence here. He has been deprived of that liberty, he has 
been turned into a Slave, and he has not seen either Judge 
or Jury. Now such men as Chas. G. Loring, Horace Mann, 
Robert Rantoul, Jr., Chief Justice Hornblower of New Jersey 
declare this Law unconstitutional, while Ben. It. Curtis and 
Edward G. Loring have argued "its constitutionality. But 
two things are plain enough. First, If it is constitutional, 
then the Constitution has provided no adequate guarantees 
for the protection of Liberty. Secondly, If, instead of the 
South threatening to dissolve the Union, it had been the 
North that was uttering this threat ; if the whole North 
was determined to resist the law, and the South did not care 
whether it was enforced or not ; how long would it have taken 
Mr. Ben. E. Curtis and Mr. Edward G. Loring to have 
shown the unconstitutionality of the law ? I once put that 
question to a defender of the law — a lawyer. He smiled, 
and said " Not five minutes." 

I am no lawyer, and it may be very presumptuous in me 
to touch on a question of constitutional law. But there are 
some common-sense conclusions, which you and I, though 



12 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

not lawyers, are adequate to. Let me call the attention of 
the defenders of this law to the following points, which plain 
men among their fellow-citizens would like to have explained. 
This examination before the Commissioner is either a trial or 
it is not a trial of the question of Liberty. If it be a trial, it 
is a trial without Judge or Jury. If it be not a trial, then a 
free citizen of Massachusetts is turned into a Slave without a 
trial. Anthony Burns was a free citizen of Massachusetts 
when he came before the Commissioner : for the presumption 
in a free State is that every man is free until he is proved to 
be a Slave. He was a free citizen when he came before the 
Commissioner — he left him a Slave, in the hands of his 
master. The Commissioner denies that his examination is a 
judicial process. Anthony Burns, then, was turned into a 
Slave, without a trial. 

Under that law, on Friday, Anthony Burns was sent back 
into Slavery by the decision of the United States Commission- 
er. It surprised not only the people, but the lawyers. Most 
of the lawyers believed that there was legal ground for a 
reasonable doubt of the man's identity. The Commissioner 
was satisfied of the identity of the prisoner with the person 
claimed, only by his own conversation. He was sent back 
entirely on the ground of what he said himself on the night 
of his arrest. And this conversation of his is proved only by 
Brent, the agent of the claimant, whose testimony on other 
points was contradicted by the strongest evidence. The Com- 
missioner admits that Brent's testimony was completely 
neutralized, as regards the point of identity, by the testimony 
of other witnesses of unimpeachable integrity. Nevertheless, 
he allows him to re-establish his own testimony, by means of 
his own testimony on another point. The only witness to 
the identity has been completely disparaged by unimpeach- 
able witnesses, and the Commissioner admits that it is thus 
disparaged, and yet takes him again as evidence to the con- 
versation on the strength of which he sends back the man to 
Slavery. 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 



13 



Setting aside everything else, Mr. Loring accepts Brent's 
account of a conversation, held with the prisoner on the night 
of the arrest, when in a state of terror ; and on the strength 
of that conversation sends him into Slavery. And yet the 
Fugitive Slave Law itself declares .that " in no trial or hear- 
ing under the Act shall the testimony of an alleged Fugitive 
be admitted in evidence." 

I do not wish to speak harshly of the Commissioner. No 
doubt he has a sufficient weight on his own mind and heart 
to-day. Miserable as is the condition of poor Burns, I do 
not know but that it is to be preferred to that of Edward 
Greeley Loring. He had an opportunity of setting the man 
free on grounds which every Boston lawyer would have ad- 
mitted to be sufficient. He has sent him back to Slavery 
upon grounds in which half his legal friends will not 
sustain him. I believe him honest, but biased against the 
cause of human liberty, by his habits of mind, and his imme- 
diate associations. When the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, 
he wrote articles, defending its constitutionality and necessity, 
in the newspapers of this city. I have not those articles at 
hand, but I recollect that they seemed to me at the time to 
contain arguments the fallacy of which, on any other subject, 
he would have easily seen. He argued, for instance, that the 
person claimed as a Fugitive could lay no claim to the constitu- 
tional guarantees of liberty, because Slaves were not parties 
to the Constitution. He thus assumed the very thing to be 
proved, that the person claimed as a Fugitive, was a Fugitive, 
and a Slave. And he has now decided the case of Burns 
according to the 10th Section of the Statute rather than the 
6th. According to the latter, he would have had jurisdiction 
over the three questions of Slavery, Escape, and Identity. 
These three points the claimant attempted to prove, thus 
selecting the 6th Section as the one under which he chose to 
proceed. But Mr. Loring decides that these two points of 
Slavery and Escape are beyond Iris jurisdiction — thus narrow- 
ing immensely the chances of the defendant. According to 



14 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

this ruling, you or I may be seized to-morrow, and the two 
points that we were Slaves, and that we escaped, would be 
considered as established by a piece of paper brought from 
the South by the person claiming us. Consequently, if the 
Commissioner had evidence that- 1 was really the James Free^ 
man Clarke described in the Virginia Record he has no right, 
legally, to do anything but send me back. He would not do 
it ; but by his own interpretation of law he ought to do it. 
He would not do it, because I am white and because he thinks 
he knows that I never was a Slave. But there is nothing in 
the law about white or black, and Northern free-born men 
are turned into Slaves very easily in this country. Witness 
the case of Northop, born in Connecticut, kidnapped in 
Washington, and for years a Slave on the Red River. Wit- 
ness that poor fellow who, born free in Pennsylvania, was 
turned into a Slave in Maryland, and lately escaped from 
Charleston to Delaware Bay on the outside of a steamer, 
under the guards, from which he was picked off, half dead, 
to be sent back to Slavery again by a Delaware Commissioner. 

" Nephew," said Algernon Sidney in prison, on the night 
before his execution, " I value not my own life a chip, but 
what concerns me is that the Laic which takes away my life 
may hang every one of you, whenever it is thought conve- 
nient." Commissioner Loring's interpretation of this Law 
may send you or me, your wife or daughter or mine, into 
Virginia as a Slave, whenever it is thought convenient. It 
will not be necessary for the Georgia Legislature to offer 
$ 5,000 again for the head of Garrison. All that is necessary 
is that a certificate shall be made out describing him, or Wen- 
dell Phillips, or Theodore Parker, as an escaped Slave, and 
Commissioner Loring being satisfied of their identity must 
send them back — or change his views of the Statute. 

The Law, thus explained, is the one which he has defended 
before this community as constitutional and proper. I blame 
him for sending back Burns under the Law. I blame him 
more for being willing to act as Commissioner under such a 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 15 

law. Ah ! but says he, if good men do not administer it, it 
will be left to be done by bad men. It seems to me that 
such a course of reasoning would justify us in doing any 
wrong thing, which we feared others might do, if we did not. 
No man who believes Slavery wrong is authorized in turning a 
Man into a Slave. I blame him then for acting as Commissioner 
under this Law. But I blame him most of all for defending 
such an infamous Statute, and for trying to make it acceptable 
to the community. If those who, in past times, have spent 
years of toil and sorrow in securing for us the great bulwarks 
of personal Freedom, Trial by Jury, the writ of Habeas Cor- 
pus, and the like, under which we live — if they are entitled 
to our lasting gratitude, what are those entitled to who exert 
their ingenuity, learning, and influence to overthrow these 
securities? These things also will be remembered — but in 
a different way. 

As regards the Mayor of the city, he seems to me to have 
taken a most ill-judged and unfortunate step in calling out 
the Military to perform escort duty to the United States Mar- 
shal. No doubt he thought that it was clone to preserve the 
peace of the city. But the peace of the city was nowhere 
threatened, and the great danger was from the armed soldiers 
themselves. Orders were actually given them to aim at the 
citizens, close to the scene of the old Boston Massacre. If 
they had fired, the results no man can tell, but they would 
have been most deplorable. Many of the troops behaved 
with brutal disrespect of the rights of peaceable citizens, and 
furnished us with an example of what it is to live under 
military ride. The Mayor of the city has, in my opinion, by 
all this, disgraced us, and shown himself eminently unfit for 
his position. He has exposed us to the risk of scenes of 
violence, which we have barely escaped by the good sense of 
the citizens, and that of some of the officers and soldiers — 
and he has disgraced our military by making them the body- 
guard of a Virginia Slaveholder and his Slave-catchers. Long 
may it be before our troops are called out again for such a 
purpose as this. 



16 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

It seemed to me, as I watched the crowd in State Street, 
that it depended on the slightest circumstance whether or 
not that street should again run red with the blood of citi- 
zens, murdered because they could not bear to see a man 
turned into a Slave before their eyes. Had I known what 
orders had been given to the troops by the Mayor of the city, 
my alarm would have been greater. If it be true, as has 
been stated, that he gave orders that any citizens who at- 
tempted to break the lines should be fired upon, then he 
deserves to receive the unqualified indignation of the commu- 
nity. It has, however, done us service in showing us what 
we are to expect from the Slave Power, under whose despot- 
ism we now live. Like other despots, it will govern us by 
military force. That is before us, as a certainty — for no 
despotism has ever failed to use a soldiery as the necessary 
condition of maintaining its supremacy. In a few years, this 
too may come. 

The papers also inform us that while bells were tolling in 
half the towns of New England, and the hearts of tens of 
thousands in Boston were weighed down by irrepressible 
grief, the Mayor and the Officers were carousing and giving 
toasts to each other at the Albion, as if utterly reckless of the 
public feeling. 

Meantime the eyes of the whole North have turned to us, 
waiting to see if the tocsin of liberty was to sound out again 
from Faneuil Hall and State Street. Sadly have they been 
disappointed. The bells were tolled in many a town in New 
England Avhen the sad news came of the decision of the Com- 
missioner and the removal of his victim. And as a specimen 
of the feeling out of New England, allow me to read to you 
an extract from a letter which I received last night from 
Chicago, Illinois : — 

" On Saturday, Chicago was thrown into a great state of 
excitement by telegraphic despatches from Boston, of the 
Fugitive Slave case. Men of all parties say that they are 
glad that the first case comes up in Boston, for they think or 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 



17 



hope that she will take the lead in resistance to oppression, 
and they are all ready to follow. We arc looking to-day, 
with great interest, for the next despatch. 

" I should be willing to prophesy that if Boston says « that 
no Fugitive Slave shall be carried back at any rate' the other 
Northern cities will follow her example." 

Oh ! what an opportunity has been lost by Boston ! And 
why is it that the old spirit has left us — the spirit of '76 ? 
It is not merely the Commissioners, and the Marshals, and the 
Mayors, who have disgraced us. They are but the creatures 
of public sentiment. If Boston were unanimous on the side 
of Freedom and Justice, ( as I trust it is to be) the Commis- 
sioners would easily discover the legality of setting free the 
Sine ; the Marshals and their followers would soon be of 
the same mind, and no more Slaves could be carried from 
Boston. All policemen would imitate the noble act of Capt. 
Hayes, and resign rather than debase themselves by such 
a service.* 

I blame to-day the Churches and Clergy of Boston, for if 
they had been faithful to their Master, this thing could not 
have happened. And especially I blame the Unitarian 
Churches, for they have had the especial and rare fortune of 
having their greatest and best teacher on the side of Justice 
and Humanity — and they have fallen away from his teaching 
and his example. Dr. Channing's writings read to-day as 

* The following is the letter of Capt. J. K. Hayes, a document which his 
children and children's children will prize as an inheritance more precious 

than houses or stocks. 

Boston, June 2, 1854. 

To His Honor the Mayor and the Aldermen of the City of Boston : 

Through all the excitement attendant upon the arrest and trial of the 
Fugitive%y the U. S. Government, I have not received an order which I 
have conceived inconsistent with my duties as an officer of the Police, until 
this day, at which time I have received an order, which, if performed, would 
implicate me in the execution of that infamous " Fugitive Slave Bill." 

I therefore resign the office which I now hold as a Captain of the Watch 
and Police from this hour, 11 A. M. 

Most respectfully yours, Joseph K. Hayes. 

3 



18 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

History, not Prophecy. He announced beforehand, in his 
clear mind, purified by devotion to truth and right, all that 
has since come upon us. And yet, out of the Unitarian 
Churches of Boston have come those who have done the most 
in this community to lower its moral sense on this subject. 
The man who voted for the Law at Washington, and many 
of those who defended it and have enforced it at home, were 
members of our Unitarian Churches. True, if we sent to 
Washington a Samuel A. Eliot, Ave have also sent a John 
Quincy Adams, a John G. Palfrey, a Horace Mann, and a 
Charles Sumner. But yet, seeing how little influence the 
teachings of a Channing, a Follen, and a Ware have had on 
the Boston Unitarians, we are brought to the conclusion that 
Commercial Christianity is much the same always — that the 
rich churches in commercial cities, whether calling themselves 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, or Unitarians, will always have 
much the same faith, a faith in the Dollar, rather than a faith 
in God. They no doubt contain many good men, and more 
good women ; but the ruling spirit of such churches is hard, 
cold, worldly, and selfish. The words of a Channing will 
quicken them to inward life only when vernal showers shall 
cover the granite rock with verdure. Dr. Hitchcock, in his 
Geology, tells us that in 1828 a mass of ice was found on 
jEtna, lying beneath a current of lava. " Probably," he says, 
" before this flowed over it, the ice might have been covered 
by a shower of ashes, which is a good non-conductor of heat, 
which prevented its melting." So when the cold heart is 
protected by the ashes of selfish and worldly habits, the warm 
tide of Christian love and holy truth may flow over it, and 
leave it hard and cold as ever. 

Then there are bad newspapers, in such a city as ours, 
which exert an influence like a poisonous miasma. There are 
reckless and inhuman prints, bought by Federal money, by 
the hope or the possession of Federal Offices, which occupy 
the exact position to-day in our community which the Tory 
pensioners of the British Government occupied here in 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 



19 



1770. Traitors to the North, hostile to every free thought, 
Slaves at heart, and fit to be the tools of the Slaveholder, 
they usually call themselves Democrats, when about to sup- 
port to the utmost the despots and aristocrats of the South. 

A blind adherance to party is another cause of our present 
position. Men allow themselves to vote for the party candi- 
date, regardless of his character and convictions. These 
candidates are usually those who are chiefly interested in 
keeping the party together, in carrying the next election ; and 
who, when they get to Washington, are moulded and influ- 
enced like soft wax by the ruling powers there. The times 
require different men — and in order to have them, those 
who see that the great question now is that of Slavery, must 
insist on positive pledges from every man before they vote for 
him. The mere name of Whig, Democrat, or Free Soiler 
is now worth nothing. We must have men to vote for, 
upright, downright, and outspoken. In this is our last hope, 
our only security. 

We have grown too rich in Boston. The rich Boston of 
1854, with its two hundred millions, has not the same energy 
and patriotism as the poor Boston of 1776. Here and there 
we find rich men who are full of corn-age and the love of 
freedom, but too often riches are found to be akin 

"To fear, to change, to cowardice, and death." 

Nor can we omit here to state, among the causes of our 
present position, the. false policy of those who have sought to 
conciliate the South by concession. In every instance, con- 
cession to the South has been followed by more desperate 
attempts for power on the part of the South. If Revolution 
is before us, if Civil War and Dissolution of the Union is at 
hand, I believe before God that the responsibility for it will 
rest upon those who, for the sake of a false peace, have yielded 
Northern convictions of right, who have called these convic- 
tions prejudices, who have sneered at conscience, and have 



OQ THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

defied the Almighty by setting the law of man above the law 

of God. 

What will be the results of all this ? What are the prob- 
able prospects before us ? Matters will not stand here. The 
indignation in the public mind, excited by such events, will 
not die out, but will grow more intense, bitter, and regardless 
of consequences. The men who, last Friday, stood still in 
State Street and submitted to the law, will, on the next occa- 
sion, be ready for more revolutionary measures. If blood had 
been shed then, if the soldiers had fired on the people and 
made another massacre, it would have been the beginning of 
a revolution quite as important as that of 1776. Meantime, 
the Slave Power, encouraged by this triumph, will go on more 
recklessly in its projects. It feels now, since it can pass a 
Nebraska Bill, and then as soon as it is passed take a man out 
of Boston at mid-day, that it can do anything. Presently we 
shall find ourselves in a war with Spain, for the possession of 
Cuba ; we shall find the Slave Trade re-opened with Africa ; 
and when at last the Slave Power has made use of the Union 
to accomplish its ends, and has gained all the territory it 
needs for its ambitious purposes, it will be ready to dissolve 
the Union, and form a Slaveholding State. All this is in 
preparation — five years or ten years may see it accomplished. 
The amount of the whole is that all these triumphs of 
Slavery increase its Political Power — while they increase the 
Moral Power of Anti-Slavery. Therefore we find the com- 
munity becoming more and more divided into two parties. 
On one side stands the Slave Power, with the party Politicians, 
the Federal Government, the United States Army, Navy, 
Judiciary, and Congress — making one formidable party. 
Opposed to these will be the masses, the uncorrupted masses 
of the Northern People — particularly in the country, where 
they are not corrupted by direct commercial transactions^ with 
the South. With these will be allied the religious sentiment 
of the country — the body of Northern clergy — all the litera- 
ture of the land — all genius, poetry, art; and all the true 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 



21 



hearted women. These have been always on the side of 
Freedom, and will be more so, hereafter, than ever. 

There is a great struggle before us, and Ave may as well be 
prepared for it, It may be a very terrible one, it may involve 
civil war, the destruction of property, the temporary overthrow 
of our social fabric. But if, in the struggle, Slavery is over- 
thrown, our country has vitality enough in it to recover from 
any shock, and that root of bitterness, that fatal poison being 
removed, it will bloom forth in new and lasting life. 

But we are not without grounds of hope to-day. When 
the night seems darkest, the day is often about to dawn. 
Senator Butler says that " a law which can only be enforced 
at the point of the bayonet is no law." The Fugitive Slave 
Law could only have been enforced in Boston last Friday by 
the point of the bayonet. It was necessary to have a thous- 
and troops under arms, a piece of artillery with forty rounds 
of canister shot, three companies of United States Marines, 
all the Police force of the city, and the Marshal with his 
posse of thieves and blacklegs, the sweepings of our jails and 
prisons. Without this force, the man could not, it is well 
known, have been removed ; and even as it was, the firing 
of a single gun into the crowd might have caused the instant 
breaking up of this military force. It was accompanied dur- 
ing its whole march by the groans and hisses of the people-; 
and many a brave soldier's heart must have sunk within him 
in thinking of the odious work in which he was engaged. It 
is very doubtful whether the military will consent to serve 
again for such a purpose. Nor shall we have a Mayor again, 
let us trust, who will order them out for this object. 

We have grounds for hope in the great change going on in 
tins community in public sentiment. Those who, in 1850, 
supported the Compromises, are now signing by thousands the 
petition for their repeal. As a sign of their feelings, this is 
well, though as a practical action it amounts to nothing. It 
is not by asking Congress to repeal it, but only by determin- 
ing that it shall not be executed, that the present crisis can be 



THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

met. The Sybil, each time that we rejecl her offer, demands 
a higher price for her commodities. A\ hat -would have done 
in 1850 will not do now. What will do now will not do 
five years hence. We have long since passed the time for 
petitions and remonstrances. We can hope little iioav from 
Congress or its action. 

The country is at last awaking. The great "West is awak- 
ing. Ohio is wheeling into line and will he, perhaps, the 
Leader in the coming struggle. Northern enthusiasm, when 
fully aroused, has always been more than a match for South- 
ern organization, — Northern conscience, slow but stubborn, 
more than a match for Southern impetuosity. So may it be 
still! 

God is on our side. Truth, Justice, Humanity, are on our 
side. These are great allies. We must no1 falter, and we 
cannot ultimately fail when they are with 11-. The Right is 
veiy apt to be overthrown at first; it i- sure of the victory in 
the end. 

"Careless seems the great Avenger: II. _;es but record 

One death-grapple in the darkness, 'twixt old systems and the Word, 
Truth forever on the scaffold, "Wrong forever on the Throne, 
Yet that -scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His owu." 

As I rode to town this morning, I passed between orchards 
and groves eaten bare by the canker-worm. It Avas as though 
afire had passed over them. But I know that in a few 
weeks the worm will be gone, and that the leaves will again 
appear, and the trees be again green. The powers of life are 
greater than those of destruction. The canker-worm of 
Slavery may destroy our present peace, our present prosperity ; 
but the powers of life which animate this great nation, and 
direct its steps toward universal Freedom and Equality, can- 
not be conquered. They will cany us forward over the 
ruins of Slavery, over false democracy, over a commercial and 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. &* 

infidel church, into a new Eden of higher Freedom, and 
Progress, and Peace. 

To-day is Whitsunday. It has a great and. hopeful lesson 
for us. Consider what darkness, what despair fell on the 
hearts of the disciples when Jesus was crucified! What 
elements of gloom went to make up that « power of dark- 
ness " ! The betrayal by Judas, the denial by Peter, the cow- 
ardice of the Twelve, the time-serving spirit of the Judge, 
the cruelty of the soldiers, the malice of the priests, the rage 
of the people. It all fell on the head of the blessed one — 
and crushing him, crushed with him all their hopes. A lew 
weeks pass — and out of that darkness comes a great light, 
out of that defeat a triumph, out of that weakness strength, 
out of dispersion union. On the day of Pentecost, fiery 
tongues rest on their heads, courage and conviction enter 
their hearts — they are heard by every man speaking to him 
in Ms own tongue, united, strong, brave, hopeful, loving— 
they go forth, to conquer the world. 

May to-day be a Pentecost to the cause of humanity. 
To-day, may the servants of Christ be everywhere speaking 
with new tongues, as the Spirit gives them utterance. May 
all our divisions and separations be at an end, and all true 
lovers of liberty, whether they call themselves Whigs, Dem- 
ocrats, Free Soilers, or Abolitionists — be united m one calm 
and earnest purpose — and once again all be of one speech 

and one tongue. 

Last Friday, Christ was crucified again in the term oi the 
poor negro Slave. This morning, I feel in my heart that the 
Spirit has arisen from the grave, and is poured out on many a 
mind and heart. It was well that this deed should have been 
done on Friday — and it is well that this Sunday should 
come so soon after, with its bright and beautiful sun, to open 
through the land a thousand pulpits to denounce the shame, 
and to call men to a deep purpose of atoning for it. 

What then can be clone ? What can we do ? This is our 
last question. 



24 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

1. We must be united. We must sacrifice everything to 
unite in one great Northern party all the friends of Freedom 
and Humanity. Let us forget the past, and gladly receive 
help from all. Let us reproach no one because he comes in 
at the eleventh hour. Whoever will repent, and do deeds 
meet for repentance — even though he has been a servant of 
kidnappers, a United States Commissioner, a Marshal, the 
Editor of a sham Democratic paper, or worse than all, a 
Lower Law Doctor of Divinity — whoever will repent, 
let him be welcome. 

2. Let us be calm. Let us put the calmest, coolest men 
in front, to lead us. Let the most conservative advise, and 
tell us what we are to do. Let those of us who for years 
have been speaking, now listen for words from those whose 
turn has come to speak. The Anti-Slavery Platform wel- 
comes its new orators from State Street and Long Wharf. 
Let us not, by any rashness, lose the opportunity of uniting 
all men who are in earnest. 

It is not for me, therefore, to say what we shall do next. 
But it can do no harm to read a little History, so that we 
may see by the example of our fathers how, without violence 
or bloodshed, this Statute may hereafter become a dead letter. 

In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, 
which was opposed as a usurpation by Parliament, and as 
denial of Trial by Jury in cases of property. This was the 
address then made by the legislature of Massachusetts to the 
Governor.* 

" You are pleased to say that the Stamp Act is an Act of 
Parliament, and as such ought to be observed. This House, 
Sir, has too great reverence for the Supreme Legislature of 
the Nation to question its just authority. It by no means 
appertains to us to adjust the boundaries of the power of 
Parliament, but boundaries there undoubtedly are." So we 

* This, and some other things in this Discourse, are taken from Charles 
Sumner's admirable Speech in the Senate of the United States, Aug., 1852, 
on his motion to repeal the Fugitive Slave Bill. 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 25 

may say that it by no means pertains to us to adjust the 
boundaries of the power of Congress ^but boundaries there 
undoubtedly are. 

The tories of that day in Massachusetts welcomed the 
Stamp Act then, just as the organs of the Administration 
welcome the Nebraska Bill and. the return of Fugitives now. 
Governor Bernard demanded submission. The Officers of 
the Customs, as now the Marshals, called for military force 
to assist them in executing it. Then, as now, the military 
Mere opposed to the people. A British Major of Artillery in 
New York said, " I will ram the Stamps down their throats 
with the end of my sword." 

But the whole country soon organized itself into a peaceful 
union to oppose the execution of the Act. John Adams, 
in his Diary, says : 

" The year 1765 has been the most remarkable year of my 
life. That enormous engine, fabricated by the British Parlia- 
ment for battering down all the rights and liberties of Amer- 
ica — I mean the Stamp Act — has raised and spread through 
the whole continent a spirit which will be recorded to our 
honor with all future generations. In every colony, from 
Georgia to New Hampshire inclusively, the Stamp distrib- 
utors and inspectors have been compelled, by the unconquer- 
able rage of the people, to renounce their offices. Such and 
so universal has been the resentment of the people, that every 
man who has dared to speak in favor of the Stamps, or to 
soften the detestation in which they are held, how great 
soever his abilities and virtues have been esteemed before, 
or whatever his fortune, connections, and influence had been, 
has been seen to sink into universal contempt and ignominy." 

Let the people be united, and they are irresistible. No 
doubt the Stamp distributors would have been glad to have 
kept their offices and salaries ; no doubt they argued that it 
was best to have the Stamps sold by "good men," but 
they had to resign. No man can live in a community, made 
unanimous by a common conviction of Bight and Truth, and 
resist its will on such points as these. 
4 



26 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

If the whole community should call upon the United States 
Commissioners and Marshals to resign, rather than to enforce 
the law, they would do so — for no man, I say again, can live 
in a community, and feel that he is deprived of its sympathy. 
Therefore no shadow of violence would be necessary, and 
ought never to be used. The calm request would be heard 
and obeyed. 

This is the only thing which can save us from a Revolu- 
tion. Perhaps even this cannot now save us. But if we can 
sever ourselves, wholly, from connection with Slavery, peace 
may return again. But if scenes like those of last week are 
to be re-enacted at the North, how long will it take to make 
the North ready for a dissolution of the Union ? 

As regards the Southern threat of dissolving the Union, 
that has now lost its terror. If we had disregarded it ten 
years ago, we should not be in such danger of dissolution of 
the Union as we are to-day. The majority of the North to-day 
have no objection to a dissolution of the Union. In this com- 
munity, where one man was opposed to the Union a week ago, 
one hundred are opposed to it to-day. The danger of disso- 
lution of the Union now, is from the North, not the South. 
And that danger will increase with wonderful rapidity, if 
some effectual measures are not taken to prevent the rendition 
of another Fugitive from the Northern States. 

Men have now come generally upon the ground taken years 
ago by Dr. Channing. In his essay on the duties of the Free 
States, he speaks of the great advantages of the Union, and of 
the dangers and difficulties which would result from its disso- 
lution. He speaks with great earnestness of conviction — but 
he closes thus, after arguing at great length in its favor. 

" In all this I do not mean that the Union is to be held fast 
at whatever cost. Vast sacrifices should be made to it, but 
not the sacrifice of duty. For one I do not wish it to continue, 
if, after earnest, faithful effort, the truth should be made clear, 
that the Free States are not to be absolved from giving support 
to Slavery. Better that we should part, than be the police of 



ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 27 

the Slaveholder, than fight his battles, than wage war to up- 
hold an oppressive institution." 

That is the voice from the grave of Dr. Channing. Is it 
strange that many should think the time indicated has come '. 
Is not the truth clear that the North are not to be absolved 
from giving support to Slavery I On last Friday, were we 
not literally made to act as " the police of the Slaveholder ? " 

3. We can all determine to support no man hereafter for 
any public office in the Federal or State Governments, who is 
not openly pledged to five things — 

1. The repeal of the obnoxious clause in the Nebraska Bill. 
£. The right of trial by Jury for Fugitives. 

3. The exclusion of Slavery from the Territories. 

4. The admission of no more Slave States. 

5. The abolition of the Union if these cannot be obtained. 

4. And, finally, there is the work of individual consecration 
to the cause of Freedom. What better time than this to 
make that consecration ? Here on this Whitsunday, the first 
after the rendition of Burns, let us each and all consecrate 
ourselves to labor and pray and speak and suffer for the 
cause of Universal Freedom. If we have done a little, let 
us do more. If we have spoken softly, let us speak more 
loudly. Let us enlist in this warfare for life. 

For myself, I here renew, before you, my dedication of 
myself to this cause. I pledge myself to devote to it the rest 
of my life, be it longer or shorter. As a Christian and as a 
minister of the gospel, I devote myself to it. I am ready to 
give to it time, thought, heart, hand, means. I am ready to 
act with all in this cause who will act with me, from the most 
timid conservative to the most ultra radical. Henceforth I 
shall reckon it no small part of my professional work to speak, 
to act, and to pray for the American Slave. I have done 
something of this hitherto. I did not learn my opposition to 
Slavery here, or yesterday — but years ago, and in the midst 
of Slavery itself. I haye friends among the Slaveholders 



28 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 

whom I love and prize, and always shall do so. I can see 
reasons why they should continue to be Slaveholders and de- 
fenders of Slavery. I can excuse them. But I cannot excuse 
any Northern man, born on free soil, nursed on the bosom of 
a free mother 4 who can in any way encourage or support a 
system, which degrades man into a tiling, which corrupts 
society, separates families, and gives irresponsible power over 
men and women to the meanest wretch who has a little money. 
For Northern defenders of such a system I have nothing but 
an irresistible loathing, pity, and sorrow. 

But let us end in Hope. "We are to-day cast down but not 
destroyed. Fraud and force, allied with fear and cupidity, 
may conquer much, but they cannot conquer God Almighty. 
Let us work in his cause. It will make your life sweet, it 
will make your dying pillow soft as down. When that su- 
preme hour shall come to us, and the world's illusions fade 
away, what will most console us ? That we have kept the 
Compromises inviolate, and have aided in sending back one of 
God's poor into unrequited toil, to die on a plantation, far 
from family perhaps, a Slave ? Will that console us ? Will 
it be pleasant to think that all the respectability and wealth 
of the community have said, " Ye did well," if the voice in 
the conscience whispered, " You are the accomplice of man- 
stealers ? " Which had Ave rather be, in that dying hour — 
a Commissioner, sending back the Slave — a Mayor, calling 
out troops to repress public sympathy with the victim ■*— a 
Marshal, earning base bread by doing the Slaveholders' be- 
hests — an Editor, defending the cause of the tyrant, and 
scoffing at freedom ? Or should we not rather be of those 
who, without reward, defended the persecuted one — who 
sympathized with his woes and wrongs — who have labored 
to break every yoke and let the oppressed go free — and who 
shall hear Christ say at last — " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me ? " 



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